Ford

A special type of indie film teaches you how to see it as you watch it — not as an instructor might a student, but as an ally would a new acquaintance. Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore feature, “Dreams in Nightmares,” about a road trip, a friendship and a Black queer landscape anchored by care, has that quietly confident appeal, like being invited into something intimate, then let free when your curiosity is at its zenith.

Ford made their name with the micro-indie, micro-focused “Test Pattern,” an act of upending as it dissected an interracial relationship’s fault lines in a moment of crisis. (It’s on the Criterion Channel now.) This time, with the drive of a born iconoclast, Ford sheds plot even further — save the loose construct of three besties in search of their absent fourth. What emerges, as the plot spans a North America whose inviting (or alienating) textures are attentively captured by cinematographer Ludovica Isidori, is an ode to the centering of chosen family when the realities of life, especially for people of color, always seem to demand soul-crushing acquiescence.

For creative writing professor Z (Denée Benton), recently let go from her Los Angeles-based university and uncertain about her future, a recurring dream featuring black-and-white imagery, a door and an enticing expanse of nature puts her in a journeying state of mind. Hopping to Brooklyn to connect with Tasha (Sasha Compère), a nervy consultant also recently shorn from her job, and Lauren (Dezi Bing), an emerging poet, this close-knit trio first decides to go dancing, then to seek out their celebrated artist pal Kel (Mars Storm Rucker), last heard from in the Midwest and who’s cut off all communication.

That framework, though, isn’t treated like some act-structured gauntlet in Ford’s telling. This is a road trip, after all, in that having a direction — to Pittsburgh, then Iowa City, Kansas City, Santa Fe and across the border — allows for some directionlessness, for different speeds, artful touches (conversations that become camera-facing interludes) and delicate epiphanies of feeling. The trio stops for a lively trans poetry reading. There’s a comically weird dinner with Kel’s ex, Sabrina (a scintillatingly eccentric Jasmin Savoy Brown). A stopover to see Kel’s parents (Regina Taylor and Robert Wisdom) illuminates, for better or worse, where some of these friends have come from and why moving forward matters.

In not adhering to the expected rules of conflict-based drama, “Dreams in Nightmares” can confound. But when you realize that this is exactly the point of Ford’s open-ended exploration, you begin to understand why Ford would rather create a roving, sensorial continuum that feeds intrigue (kudos to composer Ohyung) instead of cornering you. The performances bear that out, from Benton and Bing’s steady inner light to Compère’s coiled, watchful Tosha, a compelling portrait of skepticism inside this cocoon of warmth.

Yet of course, just when Tasha appears to be a fulcrum for narrative revelation, Ford re-balances everything, in waves of grace and gentleness, to remind us that sometimes the less we label, the more we’ll observe about the abiding importance of love and belonging. Ford has internalized the humanity of filmmakers like Mike Leigh, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Jim Jarmusch. Even the most awkward parts of the film feel uniquely alive. But as “Dreams in Nightmares” wends its way to a close, it’s also easy to believe you’re witnessing a percolating virtuosity that’s all Ford’s own.

Canada will unveil retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. on Tuesday as tensions escalated with President Donald Trump pressing the Canadian government to “fall in line,” while Prime Minister Mark Carney accused Washington of offering a bad deal.

Canadian officials, including Finance

The U.S. Navy is reportedly evaluating a major change to the Ford class aircraft carrier design that would move the island superstructure further forward on the flight deck. President Donald Trump is said to be pushing the service to reposition the island on aesthetic grounds, to make the ships look more like World War II-era carriers. Just last Thursday, Trump publicly ordered the Navy and the Pentagon to come up with a plan for abandoning the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapults and Advanced Weapons Elevators (AWE) on the Ford class, starting with the future USS Doris Miller, as you can read more about in our reporting here.

Perhaps even more so than replacing EMALS and the AWEs, shifting the island would be an extremely costly and complex proposition. The Navy also chose the island’s location for very specific reasons to provide a host of operational benefits.

The Washington Post was the first to report Trump’s push to relocate the island on the Ford class on Sunday, citing anonymous current and former U.S. officials. Another story followed from The Hill, which also cited a former senior U.S. official.

“The timing and extent of the Navy’s evaluation is unclear, with current and former officials cautioning that the service was concerned that such a change would require significant time and money,” according to the Post. “Trump’s preference, current and former officials said, is for the new aircraft carriers to look more like those that were in service during World War II.”

“The review, which was kick-started in part because of Trump’s concerns about the aesthetics of the Ford class aircraft carriers, is due in ‘several’ weeks,” per The Hill‘s story. “A Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump ordered the Navy to ‘implement design changes to our future aircraft carriers’ and that the service branch ‘has begun moving out on options to meet the President’s intent.’”

Currently, the USS Gerald R. Ford is the only carrier in this class in operational service. The Navy has three more on order: the future USS John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise, and USS Doris Miller. The service hopes to take delivery of John F. Kennedy this year. The stated plan is to eventually acquire at least 10 Ford class carriers in total. Two more ships in the class have already been formally assigned names: the future USS William J. Clinton and USS George W. Bush.

John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) Successfully Completes Builder’s Sea Trials

To be clear, this is hardly the first time Trump has pushed for major U.S. naval ship design and force planning changes, especially when it comes to the aesthetics of those vessels. “I’m a very aesthetic person,” the President declared in December 2025 at the public rollout of plans for the Trump class battleship.

For the Navy, the placement of the island on the Ford class, as well as its overall design, was not an aesthetic decision. It was also not a decision that was made quickly. During a presentation at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum back in 2015, retired Navy Capt. Tal Manvel, who served for a time as Program Manager for Future Carriers, said the service examined 75 different conceptual configurations between 1996 and 2000. In addition to a host of different hullforms and flight deck layouts, these designs had islands placed at a wide variety of different points.

You can watch Tal Manvel’s full 2015 presentation below.

Shifley Lecture: USS Ford-class carrier design

Ultimately, the Navy settled on the design as it exists today. The total length of the Ford class is very similar to that of the Nimitz class it is in the process of replacing: 337 meters (1,106 feet) versus 332.8 meters (1,092 feet). However, the island on the Ford is 140 feet further aft compared to that of the Nimitz.

The Ford‘s island is also smaller and more angular overall. This was enabled in part by the decision to use a completely different main radar arrangement on the Ford compared to the Nimitz, paring down the total number of distinct radars required as a result. However, the Dual Band Radar (DBR) proved to be extremely complex and troublesome. As a result, the future USS John F. Kennedy and every future carrier in the class is now set to have the AN/SPY-6(V)3, also known as the fixed-face version of Raytheon’s Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), in place of the DBR. The broad dimensions of the island remain unchanged. The DBR was also set to be a feature on the Navy’s trio of Zumwalt class stealthy destroyers, but the decision was subsequently made to eliminate the S-band arrays on those ships as a cost-cutting measure. Those three destroyers may eventually see the remaining X-band arrays replaced with a variant of the AN/SPY-6 radar coupled with a version of the Aegis Combat System in the future.

The matter of the radar aside, the island is sized to minimize its total footprint and maximize available open deck space, and has a very visible impact on the flight deck layout. The Ford has three aircraft elevators, two on the starboard side, both forward of the island, and another on the port side. Nimitz class carriers have three aircraft elevators on the starboard side, one of which is aft of the island, as well as one on the port side. These changes and other design choices mean the Ford has more total flight deck space than the Nimitz – five acres (217,800 square feet) compared to 4.5 acres (196,020 square feet), according to the Navy.

In an exclusive interview with TWZ back in 2022, then-Navy Capt. Paul “Paulie” Lanzilotta, captain of the USS Gerald R. Ford’s at the time, talked at length about the benefits of the island’s position.

The Navy uses “cyclic flight operations to continue to generate sorties over many hours a day,” Lanzilotta told us following a panel on the history of aircraft carriers at the annual Sea Air Space symposium that year. “And we do that by launching the cycle and then recovering that cycle.”

“If you’re a little bit late, you need to troubleshoot, maybe it’s just reset a system that’s built into the aircraft, you reset the system and off you go, you can taxi to the catapult,” he explained. “If you’re parked after the island on the older ships, you need a break in the recovery in order to do that because everything we do happens very, very quickly, very efficiently.”

“So on my ship? Less likely that you’re going to need that break and a lot more likely that I can refuel you and rearm you more efficiently,” he continued. “It’s based on the design of where the island is plus the weapons elevators and the way we fuel aircraft.”

What this all means in more layman’s terms is that the configuration of the flight deck, including the placement of the island, creates additional flexibility for launch and recovery operations and helps contribute to a better sortie generation rate. The way the space is configured would offer benefits for other activities, including hot-deck refueling and maintenance, as well. The Washington Post‘s story says the configuration also offers an added margin of safety for aircraft coming in to land by helping reduce the chance of turbulence generated at the stern.

In his interview with us in 2022, Lanzilotta, who has since been promoted to rear admiral and is now commander of Carrier Strike Group 12 (CSG-12), acknowledged that Ford had fewer aircraft elevators and less deck space in the back of the island. However, he said the elevators were designed to be more efficient and downplayed any negative impacts from the reconfiguration of the flight deck.

“I still have room back there to park aircraft. Fly helicopters back aft of the island when we want to work and park airplanes back there,” Lanzilotta said. Together with the smaller overall size of the island, “if anything, I probably gained overall area on the flight deck.”

“From a ship handling perspective, being further away from the bow kind of increases the shadow zone forward,” he did note, referring to something of a blind spot toward the bow that is only exacerbated by moving the island aft.

However, “we just manage [that challenge] organically,” he explained, “whether it’s a sensor forward, to watchstanders that are forward, and additional assets that we naturally have with us all the time, like our helicopters, and our security boats and stuff like that.”

“I’m amazed by how well we’re able to move in the narrow channel in San Diego Bay,” he added. “It’s a great bay, but a busy one.”

It is worth noting here that the Ford uses a distributed aperture remote video system to help the ship’s crew keep tabs on flight deck operations and to just provide valuable general situational awareness. This system supplants the Island Camera Room found on Nimitz class carriers. This also eliminates the need for individual camera operators at various points around the island, as is the case with the Integrated Launch and Recovery Television Surveillance (ILARTS) system on the older carriers. There are additional camera systems around the ship, as well. You can read more about this here.

The placement of the island on the Ford class reflects a broader trend, too. The design of France’s future “porte-avions de nouvelle génération,” or PA-Ng, (which translates to New Generation Aircraft Carrier), as it has been shown to date, has a very similarly shaped island that is also positioned well toward the stern. In 2023, renderings emerged of notional next-generation Chinese aircraft carriers with this same kind of island and flight deck configuration.

It is possible there are non-aesthetic reasons, as well as aesthetic ones, behind Trump’s report push to relocate the island on the Ford class. However, if that is the case, this has yet to be publicly articulated.

Very broadly speaking, since the end of World War II, the islands on U.S. aircraft carrier designs have been progressively moving further and further aft, in general. It is also worth noting that the island placement on World War II-era carrier designs was not universally further toward the bow, either. Some U.S. and foreign classes of the time, particularly lighter designs, lacked a traditional island on top of the flight deck at all.

Regardless of any pros and cons about where the island is placed on the Ford class design, moving it now would be exceedingly costly and complex. It has been pointed out that relocating the island would involve far more than just moving the superstructure. It is deeply integrated into the ship’s overall configuration, and shifting it would have much broader impacts that would need to be addressed just in terms of seakeeping, structural stability, and basic balance. A host of other accompanying changes would also be required. Since the island is where the ship’s main radars and many other key systems are positioned, a substantial amount of additional testing would have to be done to ensure everything works as intended in the new location.

“The Navy also examined the issue during his [Trump’s] first term as president,” according to The Washington Post. “A study found that moving the island could cost billions of dollars in redesign costs and significantly delay the program.”

More delays with the Ford class is something the Navy can ill afford. The program is already running years behind schedule due in no small part to issues with the aforementioned EMALS catapults and AWEs, as well as a host of other long-troubled aspects of the ship’s design. The Navy had originally planned to take delivery of the John F. Kennedy in 2022.

The potential pitfalls of a major reworking of the Ford design could have cascading effects that go well beyond this class of ships. As TWZ wrote last week after the announcement regarding plans for the catapults and weapons elevators on the future Doris Miller and other following ships in the class:

Trump’s memo yesterday also focused heavily on further steps to address now long-standing concerns about U.S. naval shipbuilding capacity across the board. America’s specific ability to produce new nuclear-powered surface warships and submarines has now become even more of a focal point in these discussions with the addition of the plans for the Trump class battleships. In May, the Navy confirmed the Trump class warships will have nuclear propulsion using the same type of reactors developed for the Ford class.

The Navy has not acquired a new nuclear-powered surface combatant in decades. Newport News is currently the only U.S. shipyard producing nuclear-powered surface vessels of any kind, and is already heavily strained by current demands, which also include production of new non-nuclear warships. There is only one other yard in the country that produces nuclear-powered vessels of any kind, and is focused on submarine production.

Pushing the schedule for the delivery of Ford class carriers even further to the right, along with adding billions to the program’s cost, would only add to the strains on the Navy’s existing Nimitz class carriers, which have been building into a low-level crisis. As we also wrote:

In a time of peace, without all the threats and operational demands the United States is currently facing, or if there was any kind of surplus carrier capacity, making fundamental changes to the Ford class carrier program might very well have been a logical decision. However, all of this also comes at a time when the Navy’s operational carriers are experiencing exceptional pressure. The Nimitz class carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been on a marathon deployment in the Middle East, has become something of a poster child for growing readiness concerns amid reports of severely flagging morale and mental health among the crew. The Navy is now moving to relieve Lincoln.

Still, this is a worrisome situation that has already been building for many years, due in large part to a succession of global crises, and has now been further exacerbated by the ongoing conflict with Iran. Even so, the Navy is trying to keep to its existing schedule for inactivating aging Nimitz class carriers, though the date for when the USS Nimitz is set to leave service has now been pushed back until next year. Retiring existing carriers will only create further strains if the arrival of new members of the Ford class continues to be pushed back.

As we also previously mentioned, it very much remains to be seen if any plans for major changes to the Ford‘s core design actually become a reality. Trump’s second term in office ends in January 2029, and any such work could easily bleed over into the next presidential administration, which could then reverse course. Congress could well step in to take action even sooner.

Whatever happens, it would be a huge undertaking in terms of both time and resources to relocate the island on the Ford class carrier, and would upend a decision that was made years ago with clear operational benefits in mind.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The classic Chicano film “Zoot Suit” is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year in style.

The Golden Globe-nominated movie, featuring a lead performance by Edward James Olmos, was based on a stage play penned by legendary screenwriter and director Luis Valdez, who drew inspiration from a pamphlet about the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the riots that it sparked.

On Thursday it was announced that the flick will be screened at The Ford amphitheater on July 8 to honor its notable benchmark and enduring legacy. The special screening will include a conversation with Valdez, Olmos and actor-educator Cristina Frías, who will discuss the movie’s production, influence and place in the L.A. film canon.

“‘Zoot Suit’ changed the way our stories could be seen on screen,” Olmos said in a statement. “It gave voice to a history that many people had never been taught and showed the beauty, strength and complexity of the Chicano experience. Forty-five years later, the film continues to inspire because it is about more than one moment in time. It is about identity, dignity and the responsibility we have to remember where we come from.”

The screening will also feature a vintage car show put on by the Pachuco Car Club, which will showcase the rides reminiscent of the time period shown in the movie.

In June 1943, L.A. was engulfed in the lawlessness and violence that became known as the Zoot Suit Riots. The name is misleading because it suggests that the zoot suiters — the young Mexican, Black and Filipino men and boys who wore the flamboyant outfits — were the perpetrators.

In fact, they were the victims.

The attacks by servicemen and white Angelenos on zoot suiters, derided as “gamin dandies” in The Times, were driven by prejudice and the anti-immigrant attitudes of the era. The roots of the unrest can be traced to events that occurred more than a year earlier — such as the incarceration of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, as well as the murder of a young man, which was later known as the Sleepy Lagoon murder case.

In his 1981 review of the film, The Times’ former film critic Kevin Thomas praised Valdez’s direction and the strength of the cast.

“Valdez has captured well many of the elements of the era that contributed to the fate of the Sleepy Lagoon defendants — the sensationalist press, the feverish patriotism of wartime and the rampant bigotry directed at all minorities,” Thomas wrote. “At the same time, Valdez makes clear that various people outside the Mexican-American community helped in the struggle to mount an appeal for the Sleepy Lagoon defendants. And he questions the entire validity of the switch-bladed, cynical pachuco mystique as [Daniel Valdez’s] Henry comes to realize that El Pachuco [Olmos] is at once his best friend — and worst enemy.”

The original 1979 Broadway run of the “Zoot Suit” play catapulted Olmos to the national stage and led to him getting a Tony nomination for best featured actor in a play.

“It was a monumental moment in time, and we captured lightning in a bottle,” Olmos told The Times in 2023. “Not only did it change the course of Latinos in theater but it touched the very soul of the culture. It was catching the voice of the pachuco.”

After spending less than a year living in Southern California, quarterback Ford Green of Westlake High retains his distinct South Carolina accent, still answers questions with “yes sir” and “no sir,” and greets adults with a handshake that can be described as nothing less than crushing.

The first impression he makes is off the charts, which piques the curiosity of strangers wanting to learn more. It only gets better., with As on his report card, an arm that throws frozen ropes and a sports history that includes baseball and boxing, which means defensive linemen better think long and hard if they want to do something stupid.

As a freshman last season, Green guided Westlake to an 11-1 record with 2,195 yards passing and 31 touchdowns. It was his first time playing quarterback with the idea of “going all in.” During the spring, Ohio State was among the schools offering a scholarship despite his lack of football experience. The Buckeyes might be on to something.

The 2026 season could be the year the 6-foot-2 Green rises to a whole different level because of his expected improvement from workouts, practices and devoting total attention to where he wants to go.

Before last season, he said he played football for fun in South Carolina. He was a baseball player, with his focus on pitching. Then, in 2025, everything changed. He said he went “all in” on playing quarterback.

“I fell in love,” he said. “When I wake up, I think about football. When I’m eating, I think about football. When I’m at school, I think about football. I’m infatuated by the game. Not a second goes by where I don’t think something about football. It’s my life.”

Green is someone to pay close attention to this summer during passing tournaments and showcases. Call it the bandwagon effect that happens when one person after another comes to the same conclusion and recognition that someone is going to be very successful.

Twice a week, he goes on Zoom to receive training from a Canadian Football League quarterback. Other times, he works with a private quarterback coach. He already understands the intricacies of the position.

“There’s so many more factors in playing quarterback than just arm,” he said. “It all starts between the ears.”

As scrutiny heightens, attention grows and expectations increase, Green said he’ll follow a big lesson already learned.

“Take it day by day,” he said. “It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it seems. Stay neutral and get better every day. I feel if I get better every day, I’ll be able to reach my goals and dreams.”

He said he was too busy with football this year to go out for Westlake’s baseball team, but in the spring of 2027, prepare for his high school pitching debut.

Green was part of an outstanding group of class of 2029 quarterbacks last fall, all of whom should be continuing their rise to prominence.

Seven-on-seven tournaments will be happening almost every weekend in June. Then, next month, prepare for one of the best on July 11 at Huntington Beach Edison, which brings out St. John Bosco, Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo, among others. The “offseason” has been shortened, with zero week scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 21-22. Programs are required to take a mandatory two-week summer break. Some take it in June, others in July. And then there’s the inevitable movement of players through transfers to change teams.

For Green, the 2026-27 school year is shaping up as his most pivotal season to show where he’s headed and what kind of talents he has in the classroom, on the football field and on the pitching mound.

Monitor the journey closely. Something tells me he won’t disappoint.